Sustainability consultant turned entrepreneur stresses stories sell

Children studying at night using a flame on a stick in Samburu county, Kenya. Only about 18% of Kenyan households have access to power. Maurits Groen hopes his self-powered LED lamp will provide safe and efficient light to those who live off the electricity grid. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

Sustainability consultants are two a penny these days. What the world lacks are sustainability-minded entrepreneurs. Maurits Groen, a 59 year-old Dutchman, spent nearly 30 years in the first camp before he decided it was high time to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty.

"Since the [sustainability] problems are really getting very acute and intense, I thought I should start doing something about them instead of only consulting about how others should do things better", he says.

A low-cost light revolution

The result is the award-winning WakaWaka Light. Based on the Swahili word for "shine bright", this low-cost LED light is revolutionising life for thousands of families in the developing world. It lasts longer (up to 50 times more than a standard incandescent light), it's hugely more efficient (its light-to-heat energy ratio is 9:1, compared to about 1:9 in the case of conventional light bulbs) and it's solar-powered so free to run. Groen's business model also enables him to give away a sizeable amount for free.

But rewind. One of the Dutchman's specialisms as a consultant was communications, so he knows the power of a good story. WakaWaka didn't spring from a venture philanthropist's deep pockets nor from the technological know-how of a large corporation. It all began with the South Africa World Cup in 2010, which was supposed to be carbon neutral but which actually ended with a deficit of 2.8m tonnes of carbon emissions.

What to do? Well, the South African government announced an international competition to design cutting-edge emission-reduction ideas. Just one small condition: it wasn't to cost the taxpayer anything. Together with Lemnis, a Dutch light manufacturer, Groen and his business partner Camille van Gestel designed an ultra-efficient LED lamp.

The problem was the cost, which was "far too expensive" for the average South African. Not one to be disheartened, Groen turned to a carbon trader and negotiated a deal to sell the carbon rights to the 2.8m tonnes of emissions that his lamp would offset. "With their signature, I could go to the bank and make a loan which we could then use to lower the price for the consumer", he explains. The solution worked and he won the prize.

Living off the grid

Until the competition, Groen has never been to South Africa. When he finally did, one thing struck him very powerfully: namely, the number South Africans (around 25%) who live off the electricity grid and for which his wonderful invention was therefore useless. Even for those on the grid, power blackouts regularly throw them into darkness. And that's just in South Africa. His research revealed that 1.5 billion people worldwide still have no regular access to power. Come the evening, the dark descends. "It's no wonder that education levels in Africa and Asia are very poor outside the big cities", Groen states, noting the difficulty of doing homework without adequate illumination.

Without power, people generally turn to one of two main alternatives for artificial light. Neither is optimal. Option one is torches run on inefficient, non-renewable, toxic batteries. Worse is option two: paraffin lamps. Poor households can spend up to 10%-20% of their income on fuelling such devices, which give off "about as much light as a candle". They are highly dangerous to boot. Groen talks of a silent massacre in the developing world as a result of fires caused by kerosene lamps. He cites United Nations estimates that put the total number of fatalities at 300,000 per year, most of whom are children.

So the problem is clear enough. In Groen's mind, so too was the solution. A sturdy, highly efficient, sustainable, self-powered LED lamp that was affordable for those living on $2 per day or less should do the trick. All very easy for a former consultant to say. Making it happen is another matter altogether. Welcome to the preserve of the entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurialism driving innovation

Groen's breakthrough was twofold. First off, he found himself a world-class solar power manufacturer. Netherlands-based Intivation has spent the best part of a decade perfecting a microchip that, when placed inside a photovoltaic panel, "lures every sunray" into producing electricity. Independent researchers show that the solar version of the WakaWaka is twice as efficient as any other solar lamp on the market.

More importantly, he came up with a cross-subsidy model that enables him to meet his affordability objectives. In essence, rich folk agree to pay more so that poorer consumers can pay less. Sold online, the WakaWaka lamps retail at around €29.50 in Europe and $39 in the United States. In developing world countries, the price is closer to $10. Groen's company, Off-Grid Solutions, produced an initial batch of 300 units last May. He's since shifted around 200,000, with customers in every single African country and purchase inquiries from 96 countries around the world. Not bad for a company with zero marketing budget.

In true entrepreneurial style, Groen isn't happy to leave it there. In February, his company launched an updated model – the WakaWaka Power – that generates enough electricity to charge a mobile phone or radio as well as the original lamp. Weighing 200 grams, he calls it "the most compact power station in the world". Developing such technology doesn't come cheap, however. Given his focus on "the most difficult markets" – namely the poor in countries like Somalia and the Sudan, where just getting the product to the end consumer is tough – he found that conventional investors were "not very keen" to give him a loan. So he turned to the crowdsourcing website Kickstarter, and raised $950,000 in two separate financing rounds.

An alternative business model

How did he persuade so many people to part with the money? It all comes back to the story, he insists: the problem of children's education, the polluting effects of alternative light sources, the deaths from paraffin lamps, and so forth. "The story sells the product", he reiterates.

And like all good stories, there's a surprising twist at the end. For every online investor, Groen promised not only a WakaWaka for themselves, but a free one for those without the capacity to pay. (Although he doesn't like the word 'free' as it smacks of paternalism, and so the recipients commit to do community service of some kind as a form of payment). The same buy-one-give-one-away deal is open to those who pre-order and pre-pay for his eco-lamp.

Next month, Groen is off to Haiti to donate 12,000 of his WakaWaka solar LED lamps to the island's refugees. He's launched a similar donation campaign in conflict-hit Syria, where power shortages are widespread. To date, he's given away products with a commercial value of $300,000. A consultant might question his business rationale. Luckily, the entrepreneur in Groen isn't listening.

Credits

This content is brought to you by Guardian Sustainable Business in association with Accenture. Paid for by Accenture. All editorial controlled and overseen by the Guardian.